"Independent Senator Ronan Mullen has been strongly criticised for comments he made today on the circumstances in which Savita Halappanavar died.

Mr Mullen claimed Ms Halappanavar would not have been in hospital and would not have died if abortion had been available in Ireland when she died in 2012.

Mr Mullen made the comment in response to questions on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke about whether Ms Halappanavar would still be alive if she was given a termination when she asked for one.

The Senator replied: “If there was abortion on demand she wouldn’t have been in the hospital because she wouldn’t have been pregnant and she wouldn’t have been having a miscarriage.”

......

Prof Peter Boylan, the former master of Holles St and chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Ireland, and international obstetric expert Prof Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, told an Oireachtas committee this week that the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution played a significant role in her death."

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